different between cruel vs demoniac

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: kro?o?l, IPA^(key): /k?u?(?)l/
• Rhymes: -??l, -u?l
• Hyphenation: cru?el

Etymology 1

From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin cr?d?lis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to cr?dus (“raw, crude”); see crude.

Adjective

cruel (comparative crueler or crueller or more cruel, superlative cruelest or cruellest or most cruel)

1. Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.

   Synonym: sadistic

   Antonym: merciful

2. Harsh; severe.
   • 2013, Ranulph Fiennes, Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth

     He was physically the toughest of us and wore five layers of polar clothing, but the cold was cruel and wore us down hour after hour.

   • 1951 C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

     You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel.

   Synonym: brutal

3. (slang) Cool; awesome; neat.

Derived terms

• be cruel to be kind
• cruel-hearted
• cruelly
• cruelness
• cruelsome
• goodbye, cruel world
• overcruel

Related terms

• crude
• cruelty

Translations

Adverb

cruel (not comparable)

1. (nonstandard) To a great degree; terribly.

Verb

cruel (third-person singular simple present cruels, present participle cruelling, simple past and past participle cruelled)

1. (chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
   • 1937, Vance Palmer, Legend for Sanderson, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, p. 226, [2]

     What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.

   • 2014, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April, 2014, [3]

     He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.

   • 2015, The Age, 8 September, 2015, [4]

     A shortage of berth space for mega container ships will restrict capacity at Melbourne's port, cruelling Labor's attempts to get maximum value from its privatisation, a leading shipping expert has warned.

2. (Australia, transitive, intransitive) To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
   • 2007, Stewart Motha, "Reconciliation as Domination" in Scott Veitch (ed.), Law and the Politics of Reconciliation, Routledge, 2016, p. 83, [5]

     Violence is apparently introduced early by the practice of "cruelling": children even in their first months are physically punished and then encouraged to seek retribution by punishing the punisher.

   • 2009, Mark Colvin, ABC, "Peter Sutton discusses the politics of suffering in Aboriginal communities," 2 July, 2009, [6]

     […] I was referring to the area where you were talking about this practice of cruelling; the pinching of babies, sometimes so hard that their skin breaks and may go septic.

Etymology 2

Noun

cruel (countable and uncountable, plural cruels)

1. Alternative form of crewel

Further reading

• cruel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• cruel in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• lucre, ulcer

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin cr?d?lis.

Adjective

cruel (epicene, plural crueles)

1. cruel

Related terms

• crueldá
• crudu

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin cr?d?lis.

Adjective

cruel (masculine and feminine plural cruels)

1. cruel

Derived terms

• cruelment

Related terms

• crueltat
• cru

Further reading

• “cruel” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Etymology

From Old French cruel, from Latin cr?d?lis; either remade based on the Latin or evolved from the Old French form crual, possibly from a Vulgar Latin form *cr?d?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?y.?l/
• Homophones: cruels, cruelle, cruelles

Adjective

cruel (feminine singular cruelle, masculine plural cruels, feminine plural cruelles)

1. cruel
2. hard, painful

Synonyms

• féroce
• pénible

Derived terms

• cruellement

Related terms

• cruauté
• cru

Further reading

• “cruel” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• culer
• recul

Galician

Etymology

From Old Portuguese [Term?], from Latin cr?d?lis.

Adjective

cruel m or f (plural crueis)

1. cruel

Derived terms

• cruelment

Related terms

• crueldade
• cru

Middle English

Alternative forms

• kruell, cruele, cruwel, crewel, cruell, cruwelle, crewelle, cruelle, crowell

Etymology

From Old French crual, from Latin cr?d?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kriu????l/, /?kriu??l/, /?kriu??l/, /?kru?l/

Adjective

cruel

1. Merciless, cruel; revelling in another's pain.
2. Deleterious, injurious; conducive to suffering.
3. Unbearable, saddening, terrifying.
4. Strict, unforgiving, mean; not nice.
5. Savage, vicious, dangerous; displaying ferocity.
6. Bold, valiant, heroic (in war)
7. (rare) Sharp, acrid, bitter-tasting.

Derived terms

• cruelheed
• cruelly
• cruelnesse
• cruelte

Descendants

• English: cruel
• Scots: cruel

References

• “cr???l, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Portuguese cruel, from Latin cr?d?lis.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /k?u.???/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /k?u.??w/
• Rhymes: -?w

Adjective

cruel (plural cruéis, comparable)

1. (of a person or creature) cruel (that intentionally causes or revels in pain and suffering)

   Synonym: bárbaro

2. (of a situation or occurrence) cruel; harsh; severe

   Synonyms: severo, terrível, pesado

3. (of a doubt or question) distressful

   Synonym: terrível

4. (of an occurrence) bloody; violent

   Synonyms: sangrento, cruento, sanguinolento

Derived terms

• cruelmente

Related terms

• crueldade
• cru

Spanish

Etymology

From Old Spanish, from Latin cr?d?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?wel/, [?k?wel]

Adjective

cruel (plural crueles)

1. cruel, mean

Derived terms

• cruelmente

Related terms

• crueldad
• crudo

Further reading

• “cruel” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

English

Alternative forms

• daemoniac
• dæmoniac

Etymology

From Old French demoniaque, from Late Latin daemoniacus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??m??n?ak/, /dim??na?æk/

Adjective

demoniac (comparative more demoniac, superlative most demoniac)

1. Possessed or controlled by a demon.
2. Of or pertaining to demons; demonic.
   • 1928, H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", Weird Tales, Vol. 11, No. 2, pages 159–178, 287:

     Animal fury and orgiastic licence here whipped themselves to demoniac heights by howls and squawking ecstasies that tore and reverberated through those nighted woods like pestilential tempests from the gulfs of hell.

   • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber & Faber 2005, p. 216:

     There was movement everywhere, screaming, demoniac activity; the old man was coming across the tumbling logs.

Translations

Noun

demoniac (plural demoniacs)

1. Someone who is possessed by a demon.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 53:

     The exorcism was dropped from the second Edwardian Prayer Book, because of its implication that unbaptised infants were demoniacs […].

References

• demoniac in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• comedian, daemonic, dæmonic, midocean

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin daemoniacus. Attested from the 13th century.

Adjective

demoniac m (feminine singular demoniaca, masculine plural demoniacs, feminine plural demoniacas) (Gascony, Languedoc)

1. demoniac, demonic

Related terms

• demòni

Further reading

• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2016, page 184.
• Pèir Morà, "Diccionari tot en gascon", 2020, Éditions des Régionalismes, Cressé, ?ISBN, p. 93

References

Romanian

Etymology

From French démoniaque.

Adjective

demoniac m or n (feminine singular demoniac?, masculine plural demoniaci, feminine and neuter plural demoniace)

1. demonic

Declension